"Because it tastes like plastic," Whit said the following morning as she and Victoire walked back to their dormitory from the showers. "The texture is plastic-like, too."
"You're mental." Victoire laughed as she avoided several of the girls who were running up and down the halls attempting to get ready for their day. As she approached her room, she noticed Dominique appear from her own room and dart across the hall towards hers.
"Nic," she called after her.
Her head turned towards the source of her name. "There you are," she said. "Can I borrow something?"
"Something for your hair, perhaps?" she asked, glancing at Dominique's sloppy ponytail. Several straggly pieces were falling out in random places around her head. On anyone else, Victoire would have known it was accident, but she had a feeling her sister actually tried to get her hair to look that sloppy.
"No," she said dryly before she followed her sister into her room. "I need to borrow your Potions notebook from last year."
"Why do you need that?" she asked as she started brushing her hair.
"I need to write an essay," she began, "and since I know you save everything, and your notes are better than mine--"
"I have Potions this morning." She glanced at Dominique. "So, I need my notes."
"You need your notes from last year?" she asked skeptically. "For today?"
"I keep them all in the same place," she said. "One big notebook."
"Oh, crap." She sighed. "All right. Well, do you have Herbology today?"
"No."
"Can I borrow your Herbology notes, then?"
"Do you even take notes?"
"I do, I swear," she said. "Your notes are just so easy to read and organized and detailed--" She smiled sweetly at her. "You did get an 'O' in both subjects, so I know I'd be getting help from the best."
Victoire stared at her. If she was actually kissing up to get her notes, she had to have been particularly desperate. "I got an 'O' because I knew the material," she said as she reached for her school bag, pulled out a large notebook, and pitched it to her sister. "You can read the notes all you want, but it's not going to help you much unless you actually retain the information."
"Which I will," she said as she caught it and smiled. "You're a life saver, Vic."
"I need it back by tonight," she said just as Dominique opened the book and turned to leave the room. It was just as she was crossing the threshold that two pieces of parchments fell out onto the floor. She reached down to pick them up.
"These two pages got loose," Dominique said. Victoire turned to see what she was talking about. It was then that she realized that she was seconds away from reading her letters to Ted.
"Oh!" She darted across the room and managed to grab one of the letters. The other was just out of reach and Dominique had already grabbed it and begun scanning it. "Those aren't…You don't need to--" She grabbed at the other one as Dominique held it away. She stared at Victoire as if she had gone mad.
"It's just a letter to Ted," Dominique said as Victoire found herself crushing the letter she had managed to grab in an attempt to wish it away. She still couldn't tell which letter she had grabbed and which one Dominique was looking at, but if Dominique found out that she fancied Ted, she'd never hear the end of it. She would turn it into one big joke.
"Give it back!" Victoire yelled.
"Why are you being so weird?" she asked. "Did you say something about me in it?"
"No!" she said as she looked down at her notebook and snatched it back. Dominique looked at her sister as if she had suddenly grown another head.
"What is wrong with you?" she asked. She looked back at the letter in her hand, her curiosity obviously peeked.
"Give me that back or else you'll never so much as see the covers of my notebooks!"
Dominique mouth went agape as Victoire's face started to turn red. She could feel her body starting to shake, but she wasn't sure if that was because of anger or fear of her sister finding out about her feelings for Ted.
"You're ridiculous." She threw the letter at her. Victoire immediately grabbed at it and quickly handed over her notebook, hoping Dominique would just take it and leave the room. She did just that, but not before throwing Victoire a contemptuous look.
She looked down at the two letters in her hand. One was considerably more crushed than the other and her eyes trailed to the opposite one; the one Dominique had been holding. She took a breath of relief as she realized it hadn't been the one that revealed her feelings.
"Well then…" Whit said from across the room.
"I had forgotten that I put them in there," she mumbled as the adrenaline in her body slowly subsided.
"I saw that," she said as she pulled her robe on over her uniform.
"You think I overreacted?"
She grabbed her bag and hoisted it over her shoulder. "A little. I mean, you looked as if you were about pull out your wand and curse her."
She sighed as she slowly walked over to her trunk and threw the crumpled, incriminating letter inside of it. "She should have just given it back. It was none of her business."
Whit nodded. "She had no right to read it, but you did come at her rather quickly."
"I'll apologize later," she said as she shut her trunk and reread the letter she had kept, making perfectly sure it was the one she wanted to send. "I can't let Dominique find out about this."
Whit stared at her. Her expression seeming to ask why, but she didn't dare say it.
"Because she'll tell everyone," she said as if reading her mind. "She'll think it's funny and...she'll tell Ted before I get a chance to."
Whit walked over and patted Victoire on the back before leaning down to hand her school bag. "Come on, I'll walk with you to the owlery so you can send that. Then you can forget all about it."
"All right," she said, shaking her head and taking her bag. "And do me a favor. Remind me to burn that other letter later."
Later that night, Victoire walked into a busy and noisy common room. All of the chairs and tables were taken while many kids were finding spots on the floor to work and socialize. Her eyes scanned the room for familiar faces and noticed her brother, Jack, and Whit sitting near the corner of the room.
"Hey," she said as she approached them.
"Hey!" said Whit. "Where have you been?"
"Professor Holt asked a few of us if we would help him restock his storage supply."
Louis looked up at her skeptically. "You such a brown-noser in that class," he said as he went back to writing something in his textbook. "Ask Jack. If Holt tells me or Nic one more time how wonderful you are and how you're such a natural at Potions--"
Jack laughed. "He does mention it."
"I can't help that I like Potions," Victoire said as she pulled her bag off of her shoulder and laid it on the ground.
"You love Potions," Whit corrected.
"Who can possibly love Potions?" Louis asked as he made a face.
"I can," Victoire said.
"So much so, that you smell Ootions it in the Amortentia," Whit teased.
"She's joking..." Louis said. He looked from Whit to his sister. "Please tell me she's joking and you're not that pathetic?"
Victoire smiled.
"Are you sure you didn't smell Holt?" Jack teased. "Perhaps you're in love with him, and since he happens to smell like potions--"
Whit laughed. "That's what I said, too."
"Yeah, no," Victoire said shaking her head. "Sorry to disappoint, but it's certainly not Holt."
"Does Stuart Reynolds smell like potions?" Louis asked.
"He doesn't," Victoire said quickly. "And it definitely wasn't him. Why does it have to be someone? Why can't it just be Potions?"
"Because you'd seem far less pathetic," Louis said.
"Well, I suppose I'm just pathetic then because it's not as if I know anyone who walks around smelling like--" She stopped speaking when it hit her. She did know someone that tended to smell like a potions lab. Of course…How had she not put that together? Both Jack and Whit were staring at her as she suddenly started laughing to herself, completely amused that she hadn't realized this sooner. It wasn't the potions lab at all she had smelled at all. It had been Ted. It had been him all along.
"Well, since you admit it," Louis said as he held out his book towards her. "Here, I'll let you do my Potions essay for me since you'll actually take pleasure in it."
"I'll never be that pathetic," she said, still amused by her realization. She glanced around the room and noticed her sister sitting with Sarah Kirke at a table near the window.
"Worth a shot," he muttered as Victoire picked up her bag. She hadn't had a chance to apologize to Dominique yet for the squabble that they had had earlier that morning.
"Going somewhere?" Whit asked.
"I'll be back," she said, crossing the room and approaching Dominique's table tentatively. Sarah noticed her first.
"Hey Vicki," she said. Dominique looked up from what she was doing and then quickly back down again in an obvious attempt to avoid looking at her sister.
"Hi Sarah," she said only taking her eyes off of Dominique for a moment to smile at her. "Hey Nic, can we talk?"
"Talk," she said without looking up from what she was doing.
Victoire exchanged looks with Sarah before she reached down and pulled out the chair across from her sister. She sat and reached around into her bag, pulling out her Potions notebook.
"Here," she said, holding it out towards Dominique, who started at it briefly before looking at her with a stony expression. "You know you want it," she added with a small smile.
"I don't know," she said. "I'd be afraid to open it in case something fell out that would cause you to have another mental breakdown."
Victoire sighed and lowered the book down onto the table. "I'm sorry. I overreacted."
"You're damn right you did."
"You shouldn't have tried to read it, though."
"You should have asked me not to before you came flying at me and yelling that I couldn't," she mumbled as she reached down and picked the notebook up. She opened it and started absently flipping through the pages. "Plus, I didn't see anything besides that it was addressed to Ted, but I saw that before I picked it up off the ground."
"You're right," she said apologetically. "I was just in a weird state this morning. Oh, and hey, you can keep that notebook until Monday. I got out of my Potions assignment, so I don't need it back until then."
"How'd you get out of your work?"
"A few people and I helped Holt restock his storage supplies, so he let us out of it."
"I would have helped that crazy old bugger do that if it meant I didn't have to write this." She gestured to what she was working on.
"I didn't just randomly get chosen," she said. "He picked me because of my work in class today."
"Oh, right," Dominique said in a hoity manner. "I forgot we have the Potions expert over here."
Victoire sighed. "Louis just gave me crap for the same thing. Why is it so bad to be good at Potions?"
"It's the fact that you're good and you oddly enjoy it," Dominique said shaking her head. "Ted and you both were always such potions weirdos." She paused and laughed to herself. "Is that what you were writing to him about that was so top secret? A secret potions lovers code where you all talk about the various uses of salamander's blood on the high holy days?"
"Yes," she said sarcastically. "That's exactly what it was about."
"Well, no worries, Vic," Dominique whispered. "Your secret's safe with me." She looked at Sarah who was watching the two of them with amusement. "Well, Sarah knows too, obviously, but she'll only tell a handful of people."
"Have you got my Herbology notes?" Victoire asked with a smirk.
She reached over into her bag and handed her back her Herbology notebook. "You have no idea how much more information you write down compared to me."
"I think I have a fairly decent idea," she said. "Did you finish whatever you needed it for?"
"I did," she said as a figure approached the opposite end of the table where Sarah was sitting. Both Victoire and Dominique looked at the same time. It was Natalie Young, and Victoire couldn't help but notice she looked like a complete wreck. She seemed skinnier than she had been before, if that was possible. She also looked as if she hadn't slept in weeks. She was wearing far too much makeup and it was noticeably caking up on her face, particularly in the large bags under her eyes. She made very brief eye contact with both Victoire and Dominique before focusing on Sarah.
"Hi Sarah. I did the first part of that Transfiguration assignment."
"All ready?" she asked. "Wow, um, I haven't even started my part. By this weekend though, I will."
Natalie nodded politely before turning and walking away. Victoire watched her go all the way towards the other side of the room where she rejoined Colleen Lynch and Penelope Shears at their table. Both girls were giggling about something and upon Natalie's return, Colleen said something that made Penelope laugh, but Natalie almost seemed to ignore her. She went straight back to reading her book.
"I can't believe she's done already," Sarah said to Dominique. "Ivanson just assigned us that today and it's a good few hours worth of research and writing."
Dominique rolled her eyes. "I'm surprised she fit it into her precious schedule. I'm so glad I wasn't partnered with her."
"I'm not if she's already done her half," Sarah said. "I can promise you Eleanor hasn't done hers, and you haven't even thought about yours."
"I'd still rather not be with her," she said. "She's completely cracked this year. Miserable to be around. Not that she was ever really a treat."
"Go easy on her," Victoire said as she continued to watch her from across the room. She looked so vacant just sitting there. When she had been with Louis she had always seemed so pleasant and friendly, if not a little flighty. Now she looked all but dead in the eyes.
"Why?" Dominique asked. "After the way she went off on Louis, I don't even have to pretend to like her anymore. You know, she's always annoyed me since first year. I only ever tolerated her because you," she pointed at Sarah, "were friendly with her, and because Louis seemed to have a thing for her."
"She seems sad," Victoire said, looking back at her sister.
"I don't see why she should be," she said as she turned back to her work. "She's got everything she ever wanted in becoming friends with those tarts. Filled your place nicely, wouldn't you say?"
Victoire sighed, not feeling particularly interested in biting on Dominique's attempt to goad her. She shook her head sadly. "I just know how she feels. Except I was smart enough to know when to get out. I had other people to turn to and keep me balanced. Who does Natalie have?"
"Colleen, Penelope, and Aspeth," Dominique said obviously.
"They're not really her friends," she said. "They're less friendly with her than they ever were with me."
"I did hear Colleen and Aspeth saying some particularly rude things about her in the toilets the other day," Sarah said with a small frown. "I felt bad because she and I used to be friends, but when she started hanging around with them, she suddenly became so distant and cold, like she didn't want anything to do with me because she'd moved on to better things." She sighed. "She's been nicer to me lately, which makes me think she's had a falling out with them."
Victoire frowned, but Dominique merely shrugged. "She made her bed. Now she can lie in it."
"It's not always that cut and dry, Nic," Victoire said.
"For those of us with common sense it is," Dominique said lazily as she started back on her essay. "Sorry, but I just don't feel sorry for her."
Victoire watched her for a few moments before turning back and glancing at Natalie. An overwhelming feeling of sadness suddenly swept over her the longer she watched. Natalie really didn't seem to have anyone outside of those girls now that she had alienated all of her other friends for them. Victoire couldn't help but be reminded of how lonely and depressed she had been at the end of last year when she had been in a similar position. When you all but run off the people who care about you, and the only people left don't give a damn about you either way, the world became a very lonely place.
As the weeks passed, the weather was warming and the grounds were repairing themselves after a long and harsh winter. On this evening in particular, Victoire's mind was drifting to thoughts of how in just a little over a month's time, she would be able to enjoy the sunny weather and beautiful beaches of Marseilles. She could go out on her Uncle Stéphane's boat and enjoy his and her Aunt Gabrielle's beautiful seaside home. She could play with her young cousins, Corinne and Aimée. She smiled as she closed her eyes and thought of swimming and lounging in the sun. The warm weather, the sun, the beach…
"What are you thinking about?" Whit asked as she suddenly reminded Victoire that she was still in fact sitting in the common room trying to sort through a Transfiguration assignment.
"Nothing really."
"You're smiling awfully wide for nothing."
"I was thinking about going to France next month," she said as glanced over at Tom Haines who was sitting next to her. She was waiting for him to finish his work so she could check it.
"Ah," Whit said from across the table as she and Davina Sharply exchanged assignments to check over. "Yes, I'm already pretty jealous."
Victoire grinned. "It'll be nice just to get away from it all. My aunt lives in this huge and beautiful house off of the Mediterranean Sea. She married this man four years ago who was already wealthy world's over and they live this glamorous lifestyle. It's amazing."
"Sounds like it," Whit said as she began reading over Davina's work.
"One more month," Victoire mumbled to herself. The phrase one more month had become a mantra of sorts for her. She thought of it constantly when she wasn't busying herself thinking about school, Ted, or dreaming about France. The thought of being done with her second to last year of school and of being one step closer to graduating made the hours and hours she was putting into studying worth it.
"Ugg, I've gotten a lot wrong," Davina said as she observed Whit checking her work.
"It's not a big deal."
"My parents want me to do well in this so I can work at the Ministry," she mumbled. "I need the N.E.W.T. in this class."
"Whatever I end up doing," Victoire said as Tom finally finished what he was doing and handed his work to her. "It will have as little to do Transfiguration as possible."
"What do you want to do when you graduate?" Davina asked.
"Not really sure." She checked Tom's work against hers. "You missed one of the key elements in question three, Tom."
"I did?" He took it from her to inspect it for himself. Victoire turned back to Davina.
"My parents both work for Gringotts and I have no interest doing that," she continued. "Something with potions would be interesting."
"Healing, maybe?"
"I've thought about it, but I'm just not sure," she said. "I'd be afraid I'd be wrong about something and someone would die."
"I'm going to work at the Magical Creature Division at the Ministry," Tom said absently, still reading over his work.
"What about you, Davina?" Victoire asked.
"I'm thinking about opening a shop or something," she said. "Nothing else really interests me. I'll probably end up at the Ministry like my parents, though."
"I have no interest in following in my parents' footsteps," Victoire said. "Working with goblins alone would unnerve me."
"They used to scare the shit out of me when I was a kid," Tom said, lowering his paper down. "Who am I kidding, they still do."
"What do you want to do, Whit?" Davina asked.
"Once I graduate?" she asked. "I'd like to be part of the Wizengamot one day, so something in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is something I'm looking into."
"Like an Auror?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that," she said. "Something more within the Council of Magical Law."
"I never knew that," Victoire said. "My Aunt Hermione is involved in all of that, if you ever wanted to talk to someone about it. I'm sure she'd love to share her experience with you."
Tom smirked. "Nice name drop."
"Oh, knock it off, Tom," she said wearily. "I can't help it that people happen to know so much about my family."
"My Uncle's Harry Potter," he mocked in a high pitched voice.
"Yes, because I go around saying that all the time," she said, getting annoyed. "You know you can be exceptionally obnoxious when you want to be."
"I'm just kidding, Vicki," he said as he looked at Davina and Whit for support. Both of them just started at him and he seemed to realized he was on his own on this. "Well, I think I'll take that as my cue to call it a night," he said as he began gathering some of his things. "I can only do so much Transfiguration in one day anyway."
"Hey Vic," said Dominique in an overly friendly manner as she approached the table just as Tom was leaving. "My favorite sister."
"Your only sister," she said, turning her attention away from Tom. "What do you want?"
"Can I borrow your Potions notes once more?"
"Again?"
"Not for long," she said. "In fact, just for a few minutes. I need to check something."
"Fine, whatever." She pulled out her notebook from her bag and handed it to her. She wasn't in the mood to argue.
"You're the best," Dominique said as she plopped down in Tom's now vacant chair.
"Why don't you check your textbook?"
"Because you make it simpler," she said. "Plus, I just needed a break."
"From what?"
She didn't look up from what she was reading, but pointed in the general vicinity of a corner of the room. Victoire followed her finger and saw Sarah, Eleanor, and Natalie all sitting together working on something. She turned back towards Dominique. "Aren't you overreacting? Natalie is not that bad."
"Right," she said sarcastically. "Hey, you should be happy I didn't just get up and leave like Louis and Jack did when Sarah invited her to work with us. I, at least, waited a few minutes. Sarah has to go feeling sorry for her..."
"I feel sorry for her, too," Victoire said. "I mean, god forbid Ted or any of you decided I wasn't worth knowing after I came around and realized I'd made some poor decisions in friends."
"You're my sister."
"So, if I wasn't?"
"If you weren't, I don't think either of us would have much to do with each other," she said. "Our differences in personalities don't exactly spell out best friends."
"Do you really think that?" Victoire was taken by surprise at hearing this. It was true that she and Dominique couldn't be more different if they tried, but she'd never really thought about the fact that if they weren't blood related, they would most likely live completely separate lives with little or no interaction.
"Sure. I think it's funny that you think we would."
"I don't know," she said. "I've always thought that even though we're different, we still had stuff in common."
"Like?"
"We both love mum's chocolate soufflé."
"Everyone loves mum's chocolate soufflé."
"I love your mum's chocolate soufflé," Whit added from across the table.
Dominique gestured to Whit. "See."
"There's other stuff," Victoire said. "That was just an example. You can't expect me to come with a bunch on the spot." She paused to think of more. "You and I both prefer my notes."
Dominique laughed. "This is true. If that doesn't say soul mates, I don't know what does."
"Hey Nicki," said Sarah and she and Natalie appeared on Dominique's side of the table. "We're almost finished with our part and we're just having a problem with this last part if you want to help. Do you want to see what we've done?"
Dominique looked at them both and threw a particularly annoyed looked at Natalie. "No thanks, I'm figuring it out my own."
"You're figuring it out, or Victoire's notes are figuring it out?" Sarah asked. Dominique wasted no time now sharing her annoyed look with her.
"Are you sure?" Natalie asked in an attempt to sound helpful. It was obvious that she was trying her hardest to gain some sort of tolerable acceptance from Dominique. Victoire almost thought she looked like a puppy.
"Perfectly sure," she said hastily. Natalie quickly lowered her eyes down to the ground looking dejected.
"What do you all have left to do?" Victoire asked Natalie specifically. She felt that at least one of the Weasley sisters shouldn't go out of their way to be rude to her.
"Just a short essay on various draughts," Natalie said. She seemed surprised to hear Victoire actually addressing her.
"If you need any help, let me know," she said to her and Sarah. "I'm weird and I enjoy this sort of stuff."
Dominique had now turned her annoyed look around on her sister, but Natalie smiled appreciatively. "Thanks, Victoire."
"I've got a lot of information on draughts in my notes, here." She pointed to book sitting in her sister's lap. "So, if you need the extra help--"
"Vic…" Dominique said.
"You're all working on the same thing," she said. "Why should you be the only one I help?"
"I'm your sister," she mumbled.
"And apparently that's it," she said as she took her notebook and handed it to Sarah. "Just get it back to me."
"Thanks, Vicki," Sarah said, looking at Dominique. "There's not enough room here to work, so let's take it back to where we were before."
"Oh, joy…" Dominique said, glaring at her sister as she stood from the table. Victoire smiled back at her.
"Play nice, Nicki. There's no need to be unnecessarily rude to someone who's making the effort to be nice."
Whatever Dominique mumbled in response, Victoire didn't hear it. She assumed it was probably better that way since she looked none too happy to be marching back across the room.
Whit smirked. "You're evil."
"She needs to learn not to be such a bitch," Victoire said. "She's acting like Colleen. Natalie is obviously trying to make amends and she won't even hear it. The reason she's so annoyed with her is because she won't let herself be anything but annoyed with her. Natalie didn't even do anything bad enough to deserve such an attitude. I mean, she broke up with Louis. It happens. He's moved on, why can't Nic?"
"Well, Louis doesn't exactly seek out Natalie's company, but I see what you mean."
"He doesn't have to," she continued. "But he doesn't go out of his way to be rude to her. He just ignores her. I really think Nic uses the whole thing with Louis just as an excuse to be mean to her."
"No one's perfect."
"Don't I know it…" Victoire sighed.